Vamps

Assignment:
Longman English
Unit 1 Activity 23
Unit 2 Activity 2
Unit 3 Activity 12, 13, 14

Everywhere I go, there is spilled water. In the hall, I had to step over spilled water and when I came to our classroom, 5G left a watery mess! Spilled water follows me everywhere! It is strange and disturbing! It is like X-files! Do you know X-Files? When I was in primary school, I was obsessed with this show.

It was about two FBI agents investigating under X-Files; Unexplained cases. It centered around the possibility of alien life. Even though it was a show for adults, I really enjoyed it because I was, and still am obsessed with extraterrestrial life, astronomy and cosmology. Too bad X-Files is not showing anymore...

Back to school matters. The nearer the exams are, the more we have to do a lot of mundane work like completing worksheets. We have finished covering the whole syllabus for Term 2 and it is now mostly revision and endless worksheets and also doing peer marking. To be honest, I don't like exams. I never did as a student and even now as a teacher, I still don't like it.

But now I understand why it is necessary. If there are no exams, then no one would want to study that hard because no one is afraid of getting low results. Very few people study for the sake of wanting knowledge. (Even though knowledge is POWER). Anyway, it feels really good when you get back an exam paper, and you found out that you achieved a Band 1 or an A* for a subject. It is one of the best feelings in the world!

One more reason why I do not like it when exams are near is because I don't get to conduct lessons where I teach and you respond! This is when learning is really fun. The few weeks before exams are too packed with completing worksheets and revision. It is very tiring, isn't it?

However, like I said, it is necessary. We won't be able to succeed without relentless practicing.

Nothing much can be said about today. The boys of Hope had their collars turned up. When I asked them about it, they sagely replied, "Miss Hidayah, when you button up your collar, it means, you are a good boy. If you turn up your collar, it means you are a vampire."

Oh I see... (-_-") Sometimes I think there is no Hope for the boys of Hope... :D

After class, I told them to fold down their collars as we needed to go to the courtyard for the Majulah Singapura and Hail Alma Mater. The flag of the country and the crest of De La Salle must be hailed by Lasallians and Singaporeans, not nosferatu (vampires) :D

It seems that the trend of Rubik's Cube (originally from the the 1980s) is back! A lot of you have bought the Cube. I am glad to see this. I have always loved to see young minds tackle the genius of Ernő Rubik. It took me more than a month to figure out how to solve it. (Without instructions) Now that I have solved Rubik's Cube, it is time for Rubik's Revenge! If you think Rubik's Cube is tough, meet Rubik's family!


From left to right: Professor's Cube, Rubik's Revenge, Rubik's Cube, Pocket Cube.

I love the cubes so I'm glad to see a lot of you with Rubik's creations and trying to solve it at such a young age.

OK, see you on Monday.

Crook

Good morning.

I know you Gs must be fuming at me for posting late again. I could not help it as I reached home very late last night.

Anyway, for those who are curious about what is happening with some of your classmates and I during recess time, there is no need to feel left out or shunned. I am merely trying to do something about the theft cases on Level 2. What we are doing is simply patrolling Level 1 to look out for any Lasallians who would go into the classrooms.

Yesterday, we had several lost items when we did not patrol. 3B's form teacher is doing an investigation by herself so I thought I could involve some of you. I can not involve all of you because there will be a risk of the thief finding out about our investigation. Already, he has been getting sneakier and cleverer.

I seek your cooperation and understanding to not ask me (or the rest of my patrol team) too much about the theft cases just yet. Once we have caught the culprit, I will fill you in on the details. If you really must know what is going on because your curiosity is like a dragon that threatens to eat you, then feel free to approach me and I will tame that dragon for you.



I would like to say that yesterday (Thursday) went smoothly but I will not because it did not! There were three incidents of spilled water! Other than that, we did Situational Writing, which you loved immensely because I noticed most of you wrote three pages long. That is beyond P3 standards! In your examination, please refrain from writing more than 200 words, which is about a page and three quarters.

We then went through our science worksheets, which seemed to be too easy for you as you completed it in barely 15 minutes. After that, we did our mosaic paper painting. Next week is going to be the last week of the mosaic. Everyone should finish by then!

Those who have completed like Sze Kaye, Anne, Darren, Cait and some others, did a beautiful job. I will post some pictures of the paintings when we are all done. This Saturday (or possibly next Saturday, if I'm not too busy this week) I will be hanging up your puppets in our classroom. I'm confident we can still win next term's Most Inviting Classroom Award again because our class has great artwork and decor!

Our library corners even have bookmarks! (Courtesy of Skyler and friends)

I have a deep suspicion that the culprit who has been tearing down our decoration is none other than the thief himself. He will be in such big trouble when he is caught because he is both a thief and a vandal.

So Gs, please work with me and try to understand that some of us are working hard on the investigation. If you want to be included, approach me. Do not complain and whine alone about it as it does not solve anything.

See you later.

My Mopping Days Are Over!

Assignments:
3 sets of Worksheets -- Editing, Synthesis, Plants

April has been a bad month for me. The class is not as well behaved as the last few months, worksheets from the printing room are endless and to add to the problems, there has been a lot of theft cases on the second level where we (P3s) are.

We can't have as much fun during lessons too because of the mountain of worksheets the school has prepared for us and our extra workload. Do you know that both 3G and 3E has almost double the workload compared to other classes? Other classes do not have to do Challenging Sums, Longman, Biology Book notes and they do not have Math 1 and Math 2 exercise books!

Today was spent going through some worksheets, writing a second draft of the composition 'A Blackout' and also some filing. Bryan and Christine had among the best composition writes. Almost all of you have shown a lot of improvement in your compositions. I guess Spelling, my insistence on using synonyms and good phrases, and also your own creativity really helped. Even Elroy, who usually gives me a rushed work got a 17/20 because he mastered his tenses very quickly.

I knew there are good writers in all of you!

So we laughed at Bryan's composition because he has a flair for writing very funny and creative compositions. Then it was back to serious business. Math. I am always serious when I teach Math so the class is quietest when we have Math.

The noisiest lesson would be English and second would be Science because the Gs have endless questions.

Today, Fabien spilled water so I sent one of the mop girls to get the mop but to my surprise, Fabien took it himself! From the girls' toilet! Seeing this, I sternly reprimanded him and told the class that outside of school, it is illegal to enter a restroom belonging to the opposite gender. I don't think they saw how serious it was though.

He took TWO mops! Luckily, he was gentleman enough to mop it up himself. From now on, I refuse to mop! You clean up your own mess, Gs!

Ok I can't type anymore because I keep thinking about worksheets and exams!

See you tomorrow.

Exams Are Coming...

Hello mini ladies and mini gentlemen.

I am starting to panic because the SA1 exam is approaching. Everyday I look upon you and see how happy go lucky you are and I panic even more! Sometimes in the staff room, I would suddenly scream out, 'Aaaaah! Exams are coming! Aaaah!', thus shocking my fellow teachers.

It is very important to me that you do well for SA1 so it should be thrice as important for you. It is important for me because I hate to see young ladies and gentlemen like reaching for the clouds when you can have the stars. Do you know what I mean? It is a metaphor. Look it up.

Anyway, I was very shocked and dismayed today when your oral examiner told all of you to use PRESENT TENSE next time. Isn't this what I've already reminded you over and over before the oral? You still had the cheek to laugh after that. It was disrespectful and rude of you. This is an exam where you can score full marks easily and you forget such a simple instruction like using present tense.

How disappointing.

OK, what's done is done so let us look ahead. Take your coming exams seriously. Never mock or laugh about examination matters.

On to the lighter side of things. Our vegetables have grown!!!! Sadly, its growth is not as good compared to the other classes. We dug our holes too deep, according to Mr Tan... When I saw our little plants, I felt quite upset.

But I have always been an optimist (a person who always try to see the good in things) so I thought, at least they are growing. I became glad again as when I took a second look at our tiny plants, instead of thinking about how the other classes have bigger plants, I thought about how much fun we had planting them on that day. How we saw the earthworm, how Div's glove tore, how we all worked together to clear the weeds and dug holes... So all is well and good.

To end this entry, (because of my love for animal science) let me introduce to you, the GOLDEN POISON FROG. In English Language, people who are called 'frogs' are considered to be ugly but in Science, I think frogs are one of the most beautiful creatures on the planet. Especially the GOLDEN POISON FROG and the Dyeing Poison Frog:



Beauties, aren't they?

The Golden Poison Frog is now considered the most poisonous vertebrate in the world! Indigenous people use their poison to make poisoned arrow tips to kill their enemies. Such is the beauty and power of the arrow-point frogs...

See you tomorrow!

Answer to Anonymous' Question II [Eels]

On Saturday, 10.43 PM, Anonymous asked:

DEAR MISS.HIDAYAH,

IF AN EEL CAN ELETRICUTE SOMETHING THAT TOUCHES IT,WHY DOESN'T IT GET ELETRICUTED ITSELF?

Dear Anonymous, try to refrain from using all capital letters next time. This is because it is the same as shouting. Shouting isn't polite.

Firstly, not all eels are electric eels. Electric eels have long, square bodies with flat heads.

American Eel:


Electric Eel:


From what I know about electric eels, they have three organs which produce electricity. It only electrocutes other fish or humans if it is threatened or surprised. They use lower voltage for hunting and higher voltage for defending themselves. Their electricity kind of works like our muscles. When we are surprised by something, our muscles tense. When the electric eel's Sach's organ tenses, it produces an electric shock.

Now, for your question. It is still unclear why electric eels don't electrocute themselves even though water is a good conductor of electricity. Some scientists have said that electric eels have insulating skin tissue to protect them. Electric insulation means, electricity cannot pass through. There are reports of electric eels getting shocked if their skin is broken (wounded).

This is not proven yet, though. As far, there are only theories to this question. I will tell you when I read of any studies with regards to this.

I hope this satisfies your curiosity.

Suspicion Abound!

Reminder:
Corrections to be done for Division (KC) worksheet.
Those with the "See Me" stamp will have to attend a 45 minutes remedial on Thursday morning, 11.15 AM to 12 PM. The consent forms will be given tomorrow.
English Oral examination tomorrow.

Today's General Knowledge Questions:
Where is the ancient city of Babylon in the modern world? [Answered by Naveed: Iraq]

Good evening 3G Lasallians. I feel like today is an extremely long day because of the mock oral exam we had. I went through each and every one of you to point out your weaknesses and areas of improvements. Although it took a long time, I think it was worth it as I can clearly see what your weaknesses are now.

Darren and Dawn did very well for the mock exam. I am very proud of the two of you. Did I miss another G who had full marks? I can't seem to recall.

For your oral exam tomorrow, here are some tips:

1. Greet the teacher graciously and with a smile.
2. Before beginning to read, ask politely, 'May I begin now?'
3. Read with expression and do not forget to enunciate clearly. Do not read too quickly as you might mispronounce words.
4. For your picture conversation, it is best to start with "This picture depicts a scene in a..."
5. Start from any four corners of the picture. Do not start from the middle!
   
6. Go in a clockwise/anticlockwise direction. Do not jump from one spot to another.
   
7. Describe a part of a picture and offer an opinion. This is very important. Giving opinions on pictures shows that you are thoughtful and observant. There is a higher chance to get full marks.
8. Speak for as long and as much as you possibly can in PRESENT TENSE.
9. Once you are done, politely say, 'Thank you.' [NO, Travis, you cannot say 'Thank you for your attention' or 'Bye bye'.]
10. Relax. Before the exam, practice by describing the things or people around you silently to yourself. This helps loosen your mind.

All the best to all of you. I will pray hard for your success.

After the mock oral, we went through past year SA1 Math paper. From the cheers and whoops, I guess everyone did well. However, be warned, this year's SA1 paper will not be easy. I am conducting remedials for those who did not do well in Math worksheets. The rest of you, practice, practice, practice. You are bright young people. There is no reason why you cannot achieve 85 and above for Math. 85 is MINIMUM, okay?

At the end of a tiring day, I had to mop again..........

NOT AGAIN!!!

Update on theft case.
During recess, I went back to our beautiful classroom to get something and saw two suspicious characters. Girls. I could not see them clearly as they quickly dashed into the Ladies when they saw me. I took my things quickly and went to intercept them but they were gone!

At the end of the day Jojo and Div told me they saw suspicious boys lurking around the second level! Something is afoot!

Perhaps we could start a patrol team to keep an eye out for suspicious characters. This patrol team will be on Level One, looking up towards Level Two. I cannot have anyone on Level Two as you might turn into a suspect.

Geniuses, be careful with your things. Do not bring anything expensive with you and keep your wallets with you at all times. Thieves are loose somewhere in school. Keep a wary eye out for them.